Museum in Important Archaeological Site in Los Buchillones, Cuba

A new museum will be opened in the archaeological site called Los Buchillones, considered the largest in Cuba and the Caribbean islands, because of the number of wooden pieces found, among them nearly entire houses.

The unit was built close to the Center of Archaeological Investigations located in the same area where the discoveries were made, in the northern coast of the central province of Ciego de Avila.
In Los Buchillones were found more than 1,500 pieces, 1,000 wooden and the rest carved in bones, stone, ceramic and shells, belonging to a group that lived here between 1220 and 1620.

Adrian Garcia, director of the Office of Monuments and Historical Places in the territory, specified that the area, located in the town of Punta Alegre, was discovered in 1940, but it was not until the 1980s that the first scientific investigations were carried out.

Garcia added that the results of the studies indicated that the community settled in the place survived the impact of the conquest and colonization, a new finding for national history that has assumed the quick and almost total disappearance of the indigenous presence in Cuba.

Some of the discovered objects seem to have been made at a time when the natives were thought to have been extinguished already, and other objects present distinctive features of the Hispanic culture, according to the specialist.

The museum has a large exhibit room to preserve the archaeological heritage, because of the significance that the evidence has for local and national culture and its impact on the level of the population's knowledge, Garcia said.

"For the first time in Cuba, a great collection of original wooden objects and remains of houses contributing to the new knowledge of the Cuban native culture, is put to the disposition of investigators and the public in general," specified Lisandra Martinez, a specialist in Museology.

Los Buchillones was declared a National Monument because of its relevance for the cultural and historical patrimony of the island, and for preserving exceptional values highlighting it as the most important native area in the Caribbean islands.